Sunday, February 10, 2013

1962 - THE LONGEST DAY, on Blu Ray

The black and white photography in The Longest Day looks pretty spectacular in this upgraded Blu Ray disc.The film itself is starting to look pretty ragged.

Overall creative control was in the hands of Daryl F. Zanuck who had left 20th Century Fox and was now an independent producer. Zanuck wanted to emphasize the actual story of the D-Day Invasion however he decided to stick as many known early 1960's actors as he could find into this film. Seen today most people probably wouldn't know who they are. The exception is John Wayne who sticks out like a very sore thumb. It's like he wandered in from the set of The Comancheroes still playing a Texas Ranger.

It's a little unfair to criticize a film like this for it's lack of explicit violence, however the fighting is pretty sanitized and the seasick soldiers coming off of their landing craft were hardly charging up the beaches. Still the film does do a good job laying out the invasion plan and many of the vignettes are true.

The large scale battle sequences with "the cast of thousands" are still impressive and the aerial helicopter shots are particularly outstanding.